HomeAway, Inc. is a vacation rental marketplace with more than 2,000,000 vacation rentals in 190 countries. It has operated through 50 websites in 23 languages. The company offers a comprehensive selection of rentals for families and groups to find accommodations such as cabins, condos, castles, villas, barns and farm houses. Founded in February 2005 and headquartered in Austin, the company became a publicly traded company in 2011. On November 4, 2015, Expedia, Inc. announced its intention to buy HomeAway. The acquisition was completed later that year on December 15.
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History
HomeAway, Inc. was founded in 2004 as CEH Holdings. The company acquired several sites and consolidated them into a single vacation marketplace, launching HomeAway.com in June 2006.
The acquisitions that HomeAway has made include:
HomeAway moved into its new global headquarters in Austin, Texas on October 2, 2009; it was the first mixed-use project and the second company in Austin to achieve LEED Gold certification for Commercial Interior Design.
In 2009, Us Weekly magazine announced that HomeAway would reunite actors Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo in a new short film and advertising campaign based on National Lampoon's Vacation (a movie). The HomeAway ad represents the company's first national advertising campaign. It debuted during the CBS television network broadcast of Super Bowl XLIV on February 7, 2010.
HomeAway raised a total of $405 million in venture-capital which was funded by venture capital firms Austin Ventures, Institutional Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Technology Crossover Ventures and Trident Capital. Homeaway's IPO stock closed at $40.21 on Nasdaq, up 48.9% from its IPO price of $27.
A summary of the company's financial information over the last four years:
A federal lawsuit accuses Austin-based vacation rental company HomeAway Inc. of engaging in "bait and switch tactics" after it rolled out new service fees for customers booking vacation rentals.
Those fees "range from 4 percent to 10 percent of the total price of the vacation rental," according to the suit filed this week in U.S. District Court in Austin. The suit claims the new fees are substantially increasing prices paid by consumers and dramatically changing the business model HomeAway and its sister sites, such as VRBO, were built upon.
Owners Direct Villas Video
Business model
Before HomeAway introduced its new optional performance-based business model in 2013, homeowners paid subscription fees which averaged out to be $442 annually, to list their own property or display their vacation rentals on the company's sites. To promote the vacation rentals, property owners and managers could purchase paid listings on one or more of the company's websites as a form of advertising to potential travelers. Paid listings appear in search results when travelers search for vacation rentals, based on their search criteria. The new performance-based model represented a second option for those wishing to list a home on HomeAway, who could still opt for the original annual subscription model.
In 2016, HomeAway introduced a controversial service fee paid by the traveler when booking through the HomeAway websites. The fee varies from 4 to 10 percent of the rental cost, and is capped at $499. The company claims the fee covers the cost of providing 24/7 customer support, enhanced site and mobile features for both owner and travelers, plus expanded marketing efforts to generate more exposure to global audiences.
Simultaneous with the service fee's introduction, HomeAway instituted a Book with Confidence Guarantee for travelers who opt to book and pay through HomeAway.
Also in 2016, the company eliminated its tiered subscription model, whereby owners and property managers could pay for placement in search results, and instituted an annual subscription option to complement a pay-per-booking option that adds eight percent of the quoted total rental fee to the cost of each booking.
HomeAway also introduced a Professional Referral Network of 40 partner companies. The network's members assist vacation rental owners in managing their listings, guest inquiries and reservations, and include Evolve Vacation Rental Network, Southern California Vacation Rentals and No Worries Vacation Rentals.
Financing
HomeAway announced in November 2006 its $160 million in financing to fund global expansion initiatives, including the acquisition of VRBO.com (Vacation Rentals by Owner). On November 11, 2008, HomeAway announced it had completed an additional $250 million equity capital raise. The investment was led by Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) and with existing investors Austin Ventures, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) and Redpoint Ventures. In 2010, the Wall Street Journal named HomeAway one of the top 10 venture funded companies.
Legal status
HomeAway has had disputes over compliance with local lodging regulations, similar to competitor Airbnb. Both joined a lawsuit against the city of San Francisco, which was settled in May 2017 when the companies agreed to facilitate registration of all host listings with the city.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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